corsage

What it means

1. A small bouquet of flowers, originally worn attached to the bodice of a woman's dress.

   Brody (Damian Lewis): Will you go to the prom with me? / Carrie: Do I get a corsage?

   2011, “The Weekend” (32:42 from the start), in Homeland, season 1, episode 7, spoken by Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes)

   1 more example

   Here, I got a corsage for you to give to Jenna. I don't know if kids still do corsages. I always got ones for Darius' girlfriends. This one is made with lilies.

   2025, S.E. Case, chapter 1, in Rigsby WI, volume 1: Foothold, →ISBN, retrieved 28 Aug 2025, page 82

2. historicalThe waist or bodice of a woman's dress.

   She now selected a slinky garment, composed of what male writers call “some soft, clinging material,” with a corsage which outlined her figure and a skirt which waved tempestuously around her ankles.

   1932, Dorothy L. Sayers, chapter XVIII, in Have His Carcase

3. obsoleteThe size or shape of a person's body.

In a sentence

Brody (Damian Lewis): Will you go to the prom with me? / Carrie: Do I get a corsage?

2011, “The Weekend” (32:42 from the start), in Homeland, season 1, episode 7, spoken by Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes)

Where it comes from

1. Proto-Indo-European*krep-
2. Proto-Italic*korpos
3. Latincorpus
4. Old Frenchcors
5. Frenchcorsage
6. Englishcorsage

Borrowed from French corsage.